Downton Abbey Season 3: Available (Early!) on DVD

A sneak peek!

by Susan Toepfer

Shirley MacLaine invades Downton

Photograph: (C) Carnival Film & Television Limited 2012 for MASTERPIECE

Can’t wait to find out what happens next in the Crawleys’ intricate universe? Want an elegant box set to replay as you lounge like Countess Cora and Lady Mary in bed? Masterpiece: Downton Abbey Season 3 debuts on DVD and Blu-ray Tuesday, January 29, three weeks before its full PBS run.

The season includes the memorable guest star turn of Shirley MacLaine as Cora’s coarse American mother. MacLaine’s comment arriving on set? “There he is…the evil one,” she said, pointing to Rob James-Collier, who plays scheming servant Thomas. Watching MacLaine and Maggie Smith (the Dowager Countess) square off, James- Collier says in a behind-the-scenes interview, was like watching “DeNiro versus Pacino in Heat.”

Other bonus video includes Downton fashion notes, wedding preparations and interviews with the key players in a season that marks, as one observes, “the beginning of the end of this world.”